Gwyneth Paltrow

Gwyneth Paltrow was born in Los Angeles, the daughter of noted producer and director Bruce Paltrow and Tony award-winning actress Blythe Danner. Her father's family was Ashkenazi Jewish, while her mother has German, and some English and Irish, ancestry. When Gwyneth was eleven, the family moved to Massachusetts, where her father began working in summer stock productions in the Berkshires. It was here that she received her early acting training under the tutelage of her parents. After graduating from the all-girls Spence School in New York City, she moved to California where she attended the University of California in Santa Barbara, majoring in Art History. She soon quit, realizing it was not her passion. In 1990 she made her stage debut in the Williamstown Theatre play, "Picnic". In 1991 she appeared in her first film, Shout (1991), with John Travolta. That same year she met Steven Spielberg, who gave her a small part in his film Hook (1991). Her next roles were in made-for-television films, until she won rave reviews for her performance in Unha com Carne (1993). In 1994, she entered into a relationship with Brad Pitt, the older (by nine years) superstar who gave her a career boost by choosing her to play his wife in the hit thriller Seven - 7 Pecados Mortais (1995). But it was the title role of Emma Woodhouse in Emma (1996) that fully tapped Gwyneth's capabilities and established her as a serious actress. She and Pitt broke off their much publicized engagement in 1997, citing as the reason the fact that neither felt that they could pursue their respective careers and at the same time maintain a happy marriage. They remain good friends. Meanwhile, Gwyneth's career has gone through the roof with the release of five glossy films in 1998, including Grandes Esperanças (1998), Instantes Decisivos (1998), Um Homicídio Perfeito (1998), and John Madden's masterpiece, A Paixão de Shakespeare (1998). Gwyneth's outstanding performance in the last film marked the greatest triumph of her career to date. She won the Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

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